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West Australian Premier Roger Cook has met with the Australian ambassador to Japan and been briefed on the situation surrounding a Perth woman detained in the country on drug smuggling charges.
Prominent Indigenous community leader and former WA Greens candidate Donna Nelson was detained by authorities shortly after she landed in Japan in January. She still does not have a trial date.
West Australian woman and Aboriginal community leader Donna Nelson.
Her family has said she was groomed for two years by a Nigerian love scammer, and was either forced or tricked into carrying a bag filled with drugs by the man she had fallen for, known only as “Kelly”.
At a press conference, Cook, who is currently in Japan, confirmed he had requested a meeting with Australia’s ambassador Justin Hayhurst on Monday afternoon to find out what more the state government could do.
“Obviously, those issues are very important to Donna’s family, and we’re really grateful for the consulate assistance she’s been receiving,” Cook said.
“I’m very much looking forward to getting a briefing from the ambassador today.”
Nelson first travelled to Japan to meet Kelly after the pair met through an online dating site called AfroIntroductions.
He claimed to be the owner of a couture brand and eventually allegedly convinced Nelson to visit him, buying business-class tickets to fly her to Tokyo via Singapore, Laos and Vietnam.
Her family believes it was during her three-day stop in Laos that Nelson met with an associate of “Kelly” and came to be in possession of the bag that Japanese authorities later uncovered at the airport.
They want Nelson’s experience to serve as a warning to other women searching for a partner online.
“We call her Mother Teresa because she thinks she can save everyone,” her daughter Ashlee Charles said.
“She is a person who tries to see the good in people.”
It is not the first time an Australian has been detained overseas after falling victim to a suspected love scam.
Queensland primary school teacher Yoshe Ann Taylor was detained in Cambodia under similar circumstances in 2013 after she was caught trying to leave the country with two kilograms of heroin hidden in her luggage.
Taylor had previously started an online romance with a Nigerian man, who had lured her to Cambodia with the promise of love and a career in the arts.
She was freed in 2019 after a Cambodian court ruled she had fallen victim to a highly organised scam run by an international drug smuggling syndicate, which tricked her into carrying the luggage.
The case provides some hope to Nelson’s family, who are determined to bring her home.
with Marta Pascual Juanola
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